Slate Run general store, tackle shop changes hands
Tom and Deb Finkbiner owned and operated Wolfe’s General Store and Slate Run Tackle Shop for 45 years, expanding it from a small one-room enterprise to a top-of-the-line fly-fishing shop, deli, grocery and gift shop. Now, they’ve handed the business off to another couple who shares the ...
Going, going, not quite gone: How pandemic changed auctions
ALLENTOWN (AP) — A moment of silence, please, for the good old auction. Oh, they’re still around. But the in-person auction, with its traditional patter and gavel-banging and crowd buzz, has been giving way in recent years to online business — a change accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, which, according to one study, has advanced the pace of online commerce by two years. Advertisement Skip in 3s In the “before times,” as the prepandemic era is sometimes known, auction houses hosted in-person events at their headquarters and at properties being liquidated in ...
Businesses scramble for help as job openings go unfilled
NEW YORK — It looks like something to celebrate: small businesses posting “Help Wanted” signs as the economy edges toward normalcy. Instead, businesses are having trouble filling the jobs, which in turn hurts their ability to keep up with demand for their products or services. ...
US jobless claims fall to 547,000, another pandemic low
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid fell last week to 547,000, the lowest point since the pandemic struck and an encouraging sign that layoffs are slowing on the strength of an improving job market. The Labor Department said Thursday that applications declined 39,000 from a revised 586,000 a week earlier. Weekly jobless claims are down sharply from a peak of 900,000 in early January. At the same time, they’re still far above the roughly 230,000 level that prevailed before the viral outbreak ripped through the economy in March of last year. “With ...
Philly developer has big plans for Atlantic City’s Showboat
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — As it turns out, the $100 million indoor water park that Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein is pursuing at a former Atlantic City casino was just the start of his efforts to bring family entertainment to the Showboat hotel. Blatstein has a boatload of other entertainment attractions on the horizon, including a retractable domed outdoor concert hall that can fit 8,000 fans; what he says will be New Jersey’s largest arcade; an outdoor beer garden, and an extension of the Boardwalk to create a sun deck near the sand dunes. It will add at least $29 million ...